14 May 2003, Tiger Mountain, Washington

On our latest biking adventure (sans Troy) Greg discovered a new way to stop on a mountain bike. This was discovered on our most recent weekly Wednesday ride. No Wednesday ride would be complete without rain and this one did not disappoint. Granted, it wasn't a downpour but there was just enough rain to make the roots and rocks on Tiger slicker than snot.

We rode up the singletrack rather than the fire road. This actually turns out to be a nice climb - much better than grunting up the fire road. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't without its cussing and GPS moves (Greg Prior Specials - for those who haven't witnessed this event it is essentially using the WHOLE trail). Anywho, it was a good time up - nice pace, a little yapping, talking smack, etc. Foggier than a concussion though.

We made it to the fire road unscathed, had a little snack and headed back down. Greg had made the comment on the way up that hammering down Tiger on a hard tail wasn't generally good for the rider or the bikey (this would prove prophetic). Ergo, we took it a little easier than normal (of course the fog bank added to this decision). Rather uneventful (but fun) through the smooth upper section but the real fun began once we hit the roots, rocks, reggae section. Greg took the lead and I was enjoying watching him throw the bike around per usual. I took a drop off a little wrong, rode the front wheel for a sec, lost my grip on my brakes and had visions of dental work due to falling on the rocky trail. Although I had no business doing so, I somehow recovered and was just beginning to de-pucker when I saw Greg utilizing the new braking technology…

Normally, I am quick to laugh my ass off when Greg crashes (haha, stamp collection!) however this time was different. He went over his handle bars but stayed clipped in, landed melon first into a little rock garden, and slammed his bike and body up against a fallen tree (root system still intact). I'm telling you it was assholes and elbows. Once at rest his left foot was up around his earlobe and his face was buried in the rock garden. He seemed to recover quickly but when I came up to him I noticed that his chin was cut pretty bad and he wasn't quite Greg-like. His first comment was "that's why you wear a helmet". He untangled himself and he bike ended upside down hanging from the tree. Too bad we didn't have a camera as this would have been a perfect time to document the carnage. We checked out the bike and noticed a few splots of blood on it. We thought he had perhaps skewered himself elsewhere but, in fact, the chin was dripping pretty good.

Needless to say, the rest of the ride was a little more low key even though Greg insisted that he got his crash out of the way. Don't know if his melon took too much of a beating but time will tell :-). I'm thinking stitches might be in order for Greggie but they're for sucks. I think he'll be sticking to the conventional braking for now on though...